On Jan. 6, just as the Zapatista national tour (dubbed the "Other Campaign" in reference to the presidential campaigns now underway in Mexico) had reached the town of Tonala, in the Pacific coastal zone of Chiapas state, word arrived that Comandante Ramona, a highly respected member of the Zapatista Army's General Command, had finally succumbed to kidney cancer after a long struggle. Subcomandante Marcos announced from Tonala that the tour would be delayed by two days as the Zapatistas congregated in the highland hamlet of Oventic for Ramona's funeral. "Comandante Ramona snatched 10 years from death," Marcos said. "[T]he world lost one of those women who give birth to new worlds."

Chadian gunmen killed an African Union peacekeeper and wounded at least 10 others in an attack in the Darfur region near the Sudan-Chad border, Sudanese authorities said Jan. 7. It was not clear whether the attackers were from the Chadian army or were government-linked tribesmen, a Sudanese military official said. But Mahjoub Hussein, a spokesman for the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), one of the rebel groups fighting in Darfur, said the attack was carried out by the Sudanese army. Officials from the African Union, which has more than 6,000 peacekeepers in Darfur, were not immediately available for comment, Reuters said. The attack came a day after Chad said Sudanese militiamen killed nine civilians in a cross-border raid. (Reuters, Jan. 7)

As if the controversy over the Basque country wasn't enough, now a Spanish general rattles the proverbial sabre over moves by Catalonia, Spain's most industrialized region, to seek greater autonomy from Madrid. A lovely irony: as the world waits for Balkan republics like Croatia to outgrow recent fascistic leanings in order to gain European Union entry, we have EU member Spain displaying its own atavistic fascist tendencies. From Reuters, Jan. 6:

From Reuters, Jan. 5:

New Orleans residents and supporters angrily confronted demolition workers in one of the city's hardest-hit neighborhoods on Thursday amid heated debate over the proposed razing of houses destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

Officials said the demolition workers were merely using a backhoe to clear debris in the poverty-stricken Lower Ninth Ward, a process that has been ongoing to clear streets and sidewalks, but residents said the sight of the heavy equipment in action raised fears their homes will be bulldozed without their permission.

From CNN, Jan. 5:

Television evangelist Pat Robertson suggested Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine retribution for the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, which Robertson opposed.

"He was dividing God's land, and I would say, 'Woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the [European Union], the United Nations or the United States of America,'" Robertson told viewers of his long-running television show, "The 700 Club."

"God says, 'This land belongs to me, and you'd better leave it alone,'" he said.

On Jan. 5 at approximately 4 PM armed “civilians

Following a ruling this week by the Supreme Court, José Padilla has finally appeared before a civilian judge—which means that the high court will likely not have to weigh in any time soon on whether he was held legally as an "enemy combatant" under the US constitution. From the AP, Jan. 5:

The gas pipeline to the Uch power plant in the southwestern Pakistani province of Baluchistan was blown up late Jan. 3, cutting off gas supplies to the plant. The attack came as sporadic rocket and artillery duels continued between Pakistani security forces and Baluch insurgents in the town of Dera Bugti.